#modern or abstract or some shit | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

verysium · 4 months

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how bllk boys would react when u draw them, could either be rlly good or rlly SHIT u choose idk (plz include barou and the itoshi bros) 😊😊😊 i love you and ur works, and the way u write the boys and ur content makes me laugh fr, one of my fave bllk authors mwjahaja 😓 have a great day, ily:3 and the icks post made me smile like all of ur posts do!

thank you so much anon ♡ this ask had me contemplating very seriously, so apologies if it's a bit late:

sae is definitely awestruck in some way, even if he doesn't immediately show it. i think i talked about this in a previous headcanon, but he has a deep-seated admiration for artists who can grasp abstract concepts because he himself cannot. he would be somewhat flattered if you drew him since he's never considered his own appearance to be particularly inspiring. would be appalled if you considered him your muse. like....why? to him, his looks aren't anything of importance (clearly he is blind.) would probably say your drawing was inaccurate but then hang it up by his nightstand so he can look at it every night before he goes to sleep. if you're a full-time artist, he probably keeps a little stash of your gifts in a small box beneath his bed. sometimes if he's having a bad day or he lost a game, he goes back and flips through them just to make himself feel better. secretly loves the way you draw his bangs and the little swoop you do in your signature.

kaiser corrects every single detail in your drawing. stands behind you and gives you little pointers here and there. he should have an 8-pack, not a 6-pack. his jawline isn't sharp enough in your initial sketch. poses shirtless in front of you so that way you can encapsulate the full extent of his sexiness. shows off your drawing to every living creature in existence. "isn't he handsome?" like...🙄 yeah, michael we know. he's probably the hardest to draw because of his tattoo, so i think he genuinely appreciates it when you put in the effort to capture his intricacies. will never admit this but he's low-key proud of you and your talent (mostly just your ability to make him look good.)

rin is one of those people who doesn't understand hyperrealism. like why does he need a highly detailed sketch of his face when he can just take a photo and print it out? i don't think he understands art in general. probably despises modern art too. he'd take one look at a rothko painting and be like....i could draw this too...in my sleep. similar to sae, i feel like he's just numb to the sentimentality of gift-giving. doesn't understand why you would waste your time drawing a little picture of him, but it does make his heart feel strangely fuzzier, so maybe he'll keep it this one time. lo and behold, months later he now has a collection of your drawings he doesn't have the heart to throw away. refuses to let isagi or anyone see them because they're meant for his eyes only.

yukimiya has impeccable taste. in fact, he's probably an artist himself. i think it'd be cute if you both drew little sketches of each other throughout the course of your relationship. but neither of you ever knew until you gifted him your sketchbook for christmas, and he was like....guess what...i drew you too. thinks you're pretty even when you don't think so. sometimes when you're having a coffee shop date, he scribbles a portrait of you on his napkin because the sunlight hit your cheek just right in that moment, and the birds were chirping, and he fell in love all over again. i think it's also tragic that he's slowly losing his eyesight, so he won't be able to enjoy your drawings and the vibrant colors you infuse into them. that's why he treasures them even more. probably thumbs over the pages from time to time. memorizes every stroke and line.

isagi likes the way you always draw that little tuft of hair that sticks up on the top of his head. it looks like a cute little bean sprout. he pins your drawings up above his bed next to a polaroid of you two in germany. buys you a professional art set for your birthday. if you're a digital artist, he buys you a new tablet and stylus.

bachira adds his own doodles next to yours except he makes a chibi version of everything. always pesters you to include his little fangs. uses the boldest combination of colors. he would definitely be a messy artist. paint everywhere. fingernails perpetually stained a different color. you both draw during class, so when you two trade notebooks to actually study......there aren't any actual notes.

barou acts like he doesn't know what to do with your drawing of him but then the next day you visit his house, and he's already put your artwork in a fancy picture frame. refuses to let anyone else even stand within a ten meter radius next to it because he doesn't want their "nasty fingerprints" all over your beautiful masterpiece.

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phaeton-flier · 4 months

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Guy who gets isekaied into ancient world, like prehistoric world, but she's just a guy and not an obsessive who memorized the steps to make sulfuric acid and gunpowder, she just studied some high-level programming shit because in modern society you don't need to know how to make the tools to make the tools (generalization, Heinlein, is for the r-strategists)

so all she can do is introduce farming and music and mathematics and handwashing and the abstract idea of animal husbandry and writing and not doing incest and human rights and the germ theory of disease. She's celebrated as the legendary First Empress and enters into mythology as Queen of Heaven and she spends the rest of her life sighing while surrounded by a harem, drowning her sorrows about not having stronger alcohol or weed.

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headspace-hotel · 1 year

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One of the most disturbing things I encountered in my journey of converting to Judaism was this podcast where Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks made the case that what originally set Judaism apart from “pagan” belief systems at the time of its development was that it “de-sacralized nature”. Monotheism killed animism, in his view, so rather than being something alive and divine, “nature” became an essentially lifeless thing that humans can use. We have a responsibility to care for nature, but only because G-d gave it to us, not because of any intrinsic value in it.

Sacks wasn’t the first person to argue this idea— it’s popular enough among a certain crowd of antisemites— but what was so disturbing for me was Sacks’ unalloyed enthusiasm about this. “De-sacralizing nature” was a good thing in his view, because it made the modern world possible and allowed humanity to “rise above mere animal existence” or some shit. It still bothers me that he drew such a radically different conclusion from our tradition. My experience with Judaism has made me infinitely more sensitive to the rhythms of the natural world and my place in it. The idea that all of nature is alive and joins us in praising G-d is everywhere in our liturgy. The sacredness of the world used to be an abstraction to me, and Judaism taught me to feel it like my own pulse.

as someone raised Christian i'm probably highly ignorant to the differences between Christianity and Judaism apart from, yknow, the Jesus thing, but "monotheism= nature is a created Thing" seems to lead people to a variety of wildly different takes.

like, American Evangelicals are mostly the far extreme of this where the earth is a temporary and ultimately disposable thing, and ultimately doesn't matter because it's Heaven that matters, and "environmentalism" is equivalent to denying the faith. It's Bad.

I just wonder, where does the difference come in? between "God created this creature and therefore we should treat it as sacred because it's his thoughtful handiwork" and "God created this creature so we can do what we want with it"? What other ideas make people go down one path or another?

#religion #judaism #christianity #monotheism #thoughts

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apollos-boyfriend · 1 year

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modern art can be stupid. it can be pretentious. but by god if i am not angered every time i see some stuck-up kid look at a piece and say “oh i can do that” or dismiss it as “easy” or “lazy” just on appearance alone.

every time i see a comment like that i think of barnett newman’s “who’s afraid of red, yellow, and blue III”. newman specified in abstract expressionism, which is the same field as artists such as jackson pollock.

this is the original piece. it was part of a collection of works, all utilizing just the three primary colors in different ratios and compositions. it may not look it, but this piece is huge.

anyways. when it first premiered, people were pissed. they hated it. it was an affront to art, it was so easy, it had no meaning, it made them sick. it was just a huge red slab of paint with barely any contrast. the museum it hung in got tons of hate mail weekly from people writing in about how much they hated the piece. and one day, all that hatred built up, as someone took a box cutter to the piece, ruining the work. and people LOVED him for it. some even wrote in saying he should be the new museum director for his creative vision.

the painting sat for a while, torn apart. people were afraid to touch it. as easy as it may have looked, newman was an expert of his craft. the paint was evenly distributed throughout the whole canvas, with not a single brushstroke to be seen. that’s no easy feat. accomplishing that on a normal piece would be hard, but even harder as a restoration, because any imperfection would be instantly spotted against newman’s expertise.

finally, someone took up the job . . . by further ruining the piece. you see, when doing art restoration, it’s imperative that anything you do can be undone. art restoration should not be permanent. the restoration should be able to be removed, in case it needs to be restored again, or returned to its original state. and the guy who took up newman’s work? he used house paint. acrylic, the same type you’d use on your living room’s accent wall. and to top it all off, he didn’t use a paintbrush, like newman. he used a roller. he didn’t even bother to attempt to recreate newsman’s skills, and instead took the easy way out, only ruining the painting further.

and to top it all off? when the painting was put back up in museums, people hated it. but not for the reason they had before. now, they hated it because it was different. the new paint had none of the shine of its original, now a dull counterfeit of its predecessor. all of its depth was gone. and people were mad! they wanted their old piece back, the one that made them sick with anger to look at. they hated the original, but now, they hated its recreation even more, because it failed to instill the same emotion the original once did.

some modern art is lazy. most is not, and it’s been shown time and time again that, if you just take a second to analyze it and look into the artist’s methods, it’s something that takes a very high level of skill to accomplish. stop shitting on it just because some pretentious assholes exist.

#icarus speaks #hi sorry art lesson time #this is partially a continuation from the notes i left on carson’s post #and partially because of a tiktok i saw shitting on modern art #where someone saw a piece and said ‘i could make a print of that in 10 seconds’#WELL THE PAINTING ISNT A FUCKING PRINT IS IT #sure you could make that digitally in the blink of an eye BUT ITS NOT FUCKING DIGITAL #TRY DOING IT TRADITIONALLY AND SEE HOW IT TURNS OUT

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genderkoolaid · 10 months

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(different person than last anon) can you give us like actual scientific papers that "nonhumans" are real and not just ppl that need a lot of psychological help? bc like while gender + sex can be very diverse and change w the individual, species is extremely specific and thats why shit like making crossbreeds is so insanely hard and they usually end up infertile bc the genes arent meant to be combined. n also the only example i can think of of any other species having "i am not the species i was born as" thoughts is that one female monkey that was raised so close w people she thought she was a person and she would refuse to breed w any of her primate species bc of it. you would call that mental illness in that monkey because she cannot be a person in a monkey body, just like someone can't be a dog or angel or horse in a human body, so why do you not consider being "nonhuman" also a mental illness?

can you please explain about alterhumanity? I don’t mean to be negative, I don’t understand… “there are only two sexes” is wrong because biology knowledge we have today actually doesn’t support that. did modern taxonomy find out something similar about humans? that’s very interesting, I don’t know a lot about it! but if you do I’d love to read that research!

So I think "there are only two sexes" isn't the best example; the comparison is more like "people can't change their gender because gender is whats in your pants"

Yes, we can look at chromosomes and hormones and sexual organs, and that stuff is related to gender. But to say "gender/sex is a construct" does not mean "chromosomes/hormones/sex organs don't exist." Its pointing out that our relationship to those things is culturally dependent (I wouldn't say "unnatural" because humans making social constructs is natural).

Similarly, we do divide up species based on reproduction and common ancestors. But "humanity" is also a construct. What it means to be human & who is defined as human can and does change depending on our culture. Not only can some people be excluded from humanity (for example, people of color and neurodivergents), but some people believe they are spiritually nonhuman (whatever that means for them). Some people who have been rejected from humanity identify as alterhuman as a way of saying "you don't want me, then I don't want you" (voidpunk is related to this although not inherently alterhuman). Some people are delusional and identify with alterhumanity as a way of coping with their delusions (and also, yes, you can be self-aware about your delusions). Some people believe in reincarnation or alternate universes or have some other spiritual belief related to being nonhuman. Some people just feel like dogs and enjoy being a dog and it doesn't matter why because they just like it.

Honestly, the monkey does sound like a monkey-version of alterhuman, because (if I can get a little anthropomorphize-y on y'all), it sounds like she did not feel apart of "monkey culture." Obviously we can't know if monkeys have a concept of monkey-hood like we do with humanity, but if they did it would not be hard to imagine how a monkey raised with humans would feel more human than monkey. But regardless... we don't need other species to have alter-species-hood for the same reason we don't need snails to crossdress for trans people to exist. Other animals probably don't have the same complex. abstract social constructs we do.

Why can't someone be a horse in a human body? For the same reason someone can't be a man in a woman's body- because "science says"? Both trans-denial and alterhuman-denial emphasizes biology over sociological investigation, which leads people to just keep shouting "but science!!!!!!!!!!" at people who are more invested in questions of culture and constructs and what it means to be [man/woman/human] in society.

(Also, I'm kind of uncomfortable with how the first ask talks about mental illness. Specifically "person believes harmless weird thing, so they must need Psychological Help for their Wrong Thoughts")

#m.#ask box

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bored-trans-lesbian · 4 months

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A Starstruck Odyssey, and Masculinity

I have thoughts and am just gonna unload them on Tumblr. That's what we do here, right? I recently have been re-listening to Starstruck and have had some thoughts on it's depictions of masculinity. This isn't a serious post per se, just some thoughts and observations. Starstruck has a wide spectrum of masculine characters on display, though a lot of it is hostile/toxic. Most men or male-coded characters are either outright villains, or more neutral parties with some toxic and selfish tendencies. Don't get me wrong it's a wild violent galaxy and that's the point, the entire party participates in scamming, kidnapping, exploitations, and unnecessary murder and we love to see it, it's not like it explicitly makes all men out to be inherently more monstrous and evil than others. But I do think the depictions of masculinity can be interesting to observe. Amercadia is a pretty cut and dry critism of the patriarchy and American nationalist culture, which is fantastic worldbuilding to include. Many of the masculine-coded androids are actually pretty nice, friendly and helpful or serious about their jobs, aside from a bitchy one in the beginning who injects our main 'droid with an anxiety spike about being one of a kind. Pretty much all of the Slugs we meet occupy masculine bodies, and they seem to have an abstract gender that picks up pronouns from the body they occupy, though the monarch is objectively a king and uses masculine pronouns even before getting a body, and he's pretty selfish and stupid.

But the main pair I'm thinking of, is Barry and Gunnie. Looking at the two of them, there's a lot you can assume. Big Barry Syx is this massive, bulky dude in power armor and shades with a mullet, while Gunnie is a 4' 11" techie cyborg with a big ol' smile. Listen to them in action and many of your assumptions are reinforced; Barry is a total dude-bro associated with nuts, steroids, working out, and acting much like gym bros in our modern life, while Gunnie is a hyperactive technician just doing his best, despite being mired in sympathetic tragedy. Barry's trauma is fairly fantastical or common to stories, having his family gunned down by one of his own, while Gunnie is mostly weighted down by medical debt after he got in an accident after trusting the wrong person. Based on these apperent details one would assume Barry is this toxicly masculine jackass who's insecure about his flaws, while Gunnie is the smartest man on board and is trying to keep everyone in line, doing the right thing, ect. And of course, you'd be dead wrong. Gunnie, while a sympathetic and likable character, is *mired* in toxic masculine traits. While it was an accident that put him in his situation, it was brash foolishness and ignoring obvious red flags that got him in that position in the first place, not to mention a rebellion against his family driving him to it. Furthermore, as Lou himself admits in Adventuring party, Gunnie's *pride* is the reason his problems are so vast; He comes from a lot of money, his initial debt might have never happened or mostly gone away to begin with if he went back to his dads for help. His toxicity doesn't make him an unlikable character but he does have these traits. He's brash, prideful, and ignores common sense a lot. He is also very nice and friendly with others, listens to people, ect. He doesn't have *every* toxic trait in the book, but has them which I tend to not even notice because he's just a funny little guy. Barry, meanwhile, is just about the most wholesome and giving person in the entire 'verse. Syx *And* Nyne, when not under a slug's control, are these total sweetheart bros. Sure, they shit talk each other with friendly ribbing, and yes they are very good at violence, but this violence is always motivated by helping those in need or fighting for those who can't fight for themselves, the Barry Battalion way. Barrys hate it when people are rude, or hurt the innocent. Barrys fight for their friends, provide endless support and praise, and will throw their very bodies into danger to protect or help, as seen on Rec 97 and in the big finale of the battle of the brands. And while the thing the love most is other Barrys, that does not mean that what they respect is also being heavily macho dudes. Barry one (or was is spelled differently? Barry Won? who knows) was the professor who created the other Barrys, a nerdy and fragile professor type, that the Barrys loved and treated as a fellow Barry *literally* the moment they were created. Even Syd is a Barry now, and that's accepted both by Barry Syx who's known her a long time and bonded with her, as well as Barry Nyne who literally, to his perception, *Just* met her, despite her appearance as like a waitress with an arm canon. Being a Barry, in other words, isn't about being just like them, having the name Barry, or anything like that. It's a vibe, it's a way to be, and the 'verse is better off with these super wholesome boys who, despite embodying many stereotypes of the gym bro, posses *none* of the commonly toxic traits also associated with that. They aren't insecure around smarter people or those with different skillsets, they hold no gendered assumptions, and they never wanna use their might to opress others for their own satisfaction.

Just, some thoughts.

#dimension 20 #a starstruck odyssey #barry syx #barry nyne #gunthrie miggles rashbax

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chaos0pikachu · 5 months

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Hi chaos,

So people on other socials are saying playboyy is camp? I don't quite get that vibe so I'm asking do you? Why?

*cracks neck* okay let's do this; this got wildly long so I'm putting a chunk of it behind a cut b/c unlike some blogs I'm not gonna subject anyone to endless and endless scrolling just b/c I added pictures anyway~~

So people are probably getting this from Den himself:

I talked about camp an itty bitty bit before, specifically I quoted Susan Sontag who was an American academic, novelist and writer mostly known for her essays. You can read more about her here. Specifically I quoted her essay Notes on Camp:

(source)

I really recommend reading the entire essay, it's a bit dated, but Sontag also makes a point that camp changes with the times as well. This essay was written, after all, in 1964, before Hairspray (1988), Batman (1966), Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), or Mommie Dearest (1981) which are considered camp classics now. However there's a lot of good stuff to learn in her essay and she also names a lot of prominent either queer creators - Oscar Wilde, Jean Cocteau - or prominent figures that the queer community sorta like, claimed - Bette Davis, Greta Garbo.

Camp is a concept, it's not a hard and fast rule. Not every film or TV show that gets claimed as camp is intended to be camp - Showgirls and Mommie Dearest are sincere in their intentions, they are not trying to be camp at all, but through sheer accidental glory they stumbled right into the camp valley. Similarly with a film I recently learned about via this amazing essay, Valley of the Dolls which was also sincere in it's depiction of drugs, sex, and show business but just ended up...campy (this is part 2 which is my favorite part but part 1 is great too):

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I would also recommend this video by Kennie JD on Showgirls and you get a modern idea of how a non-film critic sees the camp in Showgirls even tho it's not intended as camp (Paul Verhoeven is never going for camp in his films he's often going for satire and yet, alas lol):

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Okay so this is getting away from me, the question was "Is Playboyy Camp?"

I would argue, yes but definition but it's more classic definition rather than what people probably associate with "camp" in the modern day. Which is "bad" films, or so-bad-they're-good films, or drag queens - would love to see Zouey in full drag actually - but Rocky Horror isn't a "bad" film, heck Showgirls isn't a "bad" film, neither is But I'm a Cheerleader or Jawbreakers, or many other camp classics. Some are "bad" in that they didn't achieve their intentions - again Mommie Dearest is a great, if unfortunate, example of this actually - but films that intentionally try to be camp tend to fail, like Cat and the Hat starring Jim Carrey. They're to fake, they try to hard.

As Sontag said, camp is both sincere and pure and it is also abstract and highlights aesthetic first and foremost.

Showgirls grabbed people in part b/c it's so so so very over the top; from the acting yes but also the costuming and set design. But I'm a Cheerleader had a way smaller budget, but it's very aesthetics focused:

I've seen people say that Playboyy looks "fake" or "artificial" but so does But I'm a Cheerleader. However artificial is the wrong word, imo, to use here; rather both are camp and surreal. They're going with surrealistic aesthetics to emphasize the emotions of the characters and also, cause gays like color. We love that shit. It stands out. It's fucking fun, it's campy!

I don't think Playboyy is strictly camp but it does take inspiration from camp - it pushes its priorities of the film making to be about the aesthetics rather than emphasizing reality. It's not uninterested in reality - the discussions of sex work in a amoral way (which sidenote I think is a good thing), of sexual desires, the complexities of relationships and boundaries, the acknowledgement of kink etc - but it's uninterested in presenting the world of the show solely through a "realistic" lens visually.

Fantasy is part of the narrative of Playboyy thus that is reflected in the visuals.

BIAC is part satire, which I wouldn't say Playboyy is, since it's not satirizing anything specific - unlike Lovely Writer attempted and didn't accomplish imo doing well from what I watched - it's clear to me that Den is playing a lot with genre. Now how well him and Cheewin the director are accomplishing this, well that's up to individual interpretation.

I can't force people to like Playboyy as much as me - even tho I'm right - b/c I'm not a weirdo and we all like different shit. I do think that Playboyy is using like, actual cinematography however. Like I see that word thrown around a lot and then people provide really like basic examples. Like I'm so sorry but 2Gether's cinematography is basic at best and boring at worst. Two dudes standing in a badly lit room in a mid-shot does not impressive cinematography make - which is fine because a lot of these shows are made on shoestring budgets.

I don't expect Moonlight level cinematography from gmmtv or MeMindY shows. And Playboyy doesn't have that level either it can't it's clearly also made on a small budget.

That said it IS filmed with purpose, and with a specific visual language. Not every shot is great but I do love the sincerity here, it's using color, lighting, and set design with actual thought to enhance the overall aesthetics of the show, enhance the fantasy at play, the camp.

Camp films aren't inherently "bad" films. They make you laugh, scream, and the best ones, actually do say something or spark discussion. Rocky Horror is meaningful to people, But I'm a Cheerleader means something to people, they're both unashamedly queer films that were both kinda bombs - critically and financially - and then slowly gained a cult following b/c they were way ahead of their times.

I get the feeling if camp applies to Playboyy at all it's in that sense, a series that's being pretty harshly maligned and disregarded critically at the moment, but that actually has a ton to say and may end up gaining a following down the line after it's over.

This was like, wildly long and I apologize lol

#playboyy the series #chaos pikachu speaks #chaos pikachu metas #anon asks

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prettyboysdontlookatexplosions · 8 months

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one thing that's been percolating in my mind about mina and her relationship to women's history this time through is that like... it can be tempting (for me too!) from a contemporary perspective to kind of think as "traditional" and "progressive" as opposite sides of a spectrum upon which women can be linearly placed in terms of their beliefs. but it's a little more complicated than that, obviously. mina i think can be a little jarring to the modern reader because she is as a person obviously so independent, bright, curious, and hard-working, but her vocational ambitions as expressed in the text are limited to supporting her future husband, and i think there can be a tendency to sort of slot her as like, "ok, well, she's a little bit progressive, but not that far along," or whatever, and there's, again, a lot we can do to unpack that, but for me there are two things that have been coming up for me revisiting the topic on my second time through (disclaimer: i'm an idiot with a blog who doesn't know anything about anything & if any actual experts want to weigh in please do! also if anyone has any accessible readings on the new woman please do @ me because that phrase is it turns out fucking ungoogleable):

(1) i think it's important to remember that for all human beings on earth ever, there's not a simple unidirectional relationship between internal beliefs and external action/reality, nor do beliefs come out of nowhere or out of some ether from which we pluck ideas out of pure abstraction. a lot of looking at women's history is looking at how women chose to navigate the options available to them, which both inform ideology and also make it frankly sometimes just not that important. a book that really powerfully shaped the way i think about this stuff is kathy peiss's cheap amusements: working women and leisure in turn of the century new york. the way she explores her source material for that space and time really brought home to me that it's very difficult as a woman who came of age (for example) in the US after second wave feminism to really understand just how beside the point the question of "what do i as an individual believe about women's role in society" was for (as just one example) many women in that location, class, and period. it just doesn't matter compared to things like being able to pay your rent, or being able to afford a night out once in a while - which might mean letting a guy pay your way not because you think it's "the man's job" but because you don't make enough to go out with your own money ever - so maybe you do think it's the man's job but it's not because of some like disembodied attachment to traditional gender roles, it's because the men are the ones with the fucking money!

anyway. different place, different class position, slightly later period, but the general principles from that book have really stayed with me and have been echoing thinking about mina. like: how much does an assistant schoolmistress in 1890s london make? i'm not an expert but willing to bet it's not a lot? she's an orphan, actively aware that she and jonathan have only what they can cobble together. if she remains in the professional world after her marriage, who does the labor of running a two-person household - something we here on tumblr complain in 2023 is difficult if everyone has a full-time job, and which was much more difficult with more than a century's progress in domestic technology still to go (and this isn't getting into childrearing). would their combined incomes be enough to afford a domestic servant? idk shit about the economic position of late victorian women so these are not questions i am presenting as having ostensibly "obvious" answers - i really don't know. but i think these are things that are worth considering when we think about mina, her ambitions, & her relationship to shifting cultural currents (which were really shifting quite quickly - the "new woman" was such a recent coinage at the book's publication that if you assume, for example, that the epilogue is meant to take place in its publication year, the events of the novel precede its first appearance in print), and i think it's just never really quite as simple as "well this is what she Believed." our world makes our beliefs at least as much as the other way around.

(2) the other thing that's been in my head is that in a more contemporary framework of how gender operates, it is easy to assume the dichotomy of technology/science/jobs/boy stuff vs. domesticity/home/housewife/girl stuff extends backwards throughout time forever. but, first off, domestic labor is labor and mina is still very much looking ahead at a life of working full time - just not at getting paid. but secondly, homemaking was one of many things getting brought under the umbrella of "science" in the late 19th century (along with, to name examples from the book, psychology and criminology). like a lot of things in my brain the "scientific housewife" is something i vaguely remember hearing about in some college class or book but don't have any ready cites for, but while googling last night i found this very cool recent article [linked below because the app will not fucking let me make a text link] that looks at the evolution of instruction in science, housework, and domestic science at two english day schools for girls in the late victorian/early edwardian (the kind of school i think mina may have attended and taught at, as i don't believe we're ever given much detail about her place of work), and which provides some background info on the idea of the "scientific housewife":

Scholars have since recognised that the middle-class home was “the locus of back-breaking toil” Domestic servants were not as prevalent as once thought, and in some cases it was common for mistresses to work alongside them. The average middle-class woman would likely have been at least partially a housewife, or, in other words, she would have undertaken some domestic labour herself. In contemporary culture, a link was also being forged between housework and science; historians have charted the ideology of “scientific housewifery” or “scientific motherhood”, which encouraged women to embrace science, medicine, and technology in the nineteenth century, to enhance domestic life and make it more efficient, more enjoyable, easier, and healthier for the family. Work by Judy Giles and Joanne Hollows has suggested that ideals of a modern, scientific housewife emerged in the first half of the twentieth century with the decline of domestic service. Given that many middle-class women would have been undertaking housework themselves in the nineteenth century, this article asserts that the cultural construction of the scientific housewife existed before the decline of domestic service. This article builds on the work of Nakagomi by considering the place of domestic subjects and science in schools as a window into a broader societal conceptualisation of housework and the housewife.

one interesting thing in this article is that the two schools profiled actually had strong differences in how they conceptualized and approached their domestic programming, which reminds us that big-picture ideals are always being navigated, redefined, and contested in practice. it also emphasizes that for at least some teachers and schools for girls, the teaching of science was considered an important part of the intellectual development of the students - a position, fascinatingly, NOT taken by comparable boys' schools of the period, which tended to marginalized science education in favor of the classics, which was a wonderful little reminder for me about just how incredibly fake gender is. but also i think this article (which identifies some shifts happenings in the 1890s, like really this novel came out at The fulcrum point of the culture) helps us consider that the seriousness with which mina takes her future home-making as a vocation can be read as part and parcel of the novel's fascination with modernity, technology, science, and progress - and indeed given the moral panic about lazy mothering the article mentions as arising in the press a few years later it even lets us consider that mina's status as a female victorian ideal and her temperament of someone deeply pro-science may not have appeared to be in as much tension as we might assume.

#dracula daily #it's good to have hobbies. i guess. i guess this is good.

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channieismyboy · 2 years

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chanel chance - part two

{dilf!/suggardaddy!seonghwa x reader}

sypnosis: after ariving to mr. parks place, you realize that he's more different than you thought he would be...

here's a link to my masterlist <3 | link to part 1 and part 3

warnings: age difference (y/n is 21, seonghwa is 29), eventual smut, language, kind of slow burn, sad attemps at humor. wc: 2.9k

"i told you he was rich," jisung says in an 'i told you so' tone. normally, you would laugh at his comment, but your mind is still trying to process what is happening. you're not just going to babysit any girl. you're going to babysit the daughter of one of the biggest law company’s ceo's in your country. to say that you're terrified would be an understatement. sweat is starting to form at the back of your knees because of the situation you’re in right now. you thank yourself for deciding to wear long trousers.

"guys, i think mr. park is the ceo of my uncle's law company." you say timidly. "obviously since he lives in this type of area," minho adds.

"wait, i thought he was just some co-worker of your uncle's?" jisung asks, confusion laced within his words. you then explain to him what you discovered. both him and minho are stunned.

minho drives further up to the gate. a tall man, dressed in a black suit and dark sunglasses approaches the car, and signals it to stop before the gate. he comes closer to the window of the driver's seat, and leans down. minho rolls down the window, while clearing his throat.

"please show me some ID," the man says in an awfully stern voice. the aura that he emits is scarier than you thought it would be. minho reaches into his wallet to hand him his ID, you and jisung follow suit.

"okay," the man speaks while distributing back your ID's. "and what is your business here," his face is so expressionless, it intimidates you enormously. you decide to speak up at his question, as you're the reason for this encounter.

"i am here to visit mr. park seonghwa. i am scheduled to babysit his daughter." you pull out your phone to show the man your texts between you and mr. park for extra conformation. “and what about these two?" the man points to minho and jisung, with his eyebrows raised. you explain to the man that since you have no car, they drove you here. luckily, he lets you through the gate, telling minho leave right after dropping you off at mr. park's residence.

you three gasp in awe at the gorgeous mansions in the secluded neighborhood. some of them looked more modern than others. various had castle-like details on the roofing. every few seconds jisung would hit at minho's shoulder and scream at the magnificence of the homes.

the further the car into the neighborhood, the space between the homes became greater. mr. park's house number is 46. as you reach house number 45, the one across it is in yours and minho and jisung’s opinion the most beautiful. "this is 46 right?" minho asks, while eyeing up the house. It isn't as big in height as the other ones. however, it reached out more than the others. it looked to be two stories high, with a rectangular shape. the top of the home stood out more, giving it an abstract look. the first floor had a black expensive tiling, while the second floor had beautiful woodwork on it, with a stunning dark brown stain to it. the second floor had massive floor-to-ceiling windows tinted in a dark blue colour.

it had a deeper front yard than the other homes, making it look bigger. tall dark green trees surrounded the home. a combination of white hydrangeas and pink sweet peas covered the front of the home.

"holy shit," is all you could say.

"how rich is this man?" minho asks.

"he's the ceo of the biggest law company in our country. he is extremely rich." you answer.

you look at the time, it read 3:47 p.m. thank god you're earlier you think. you would not want to show up late, making a bad first impression on this man could not only ruin your chances of getting this job. but, could also ruin your uncle's job.

"well, what are you waiting for? get out." minho says. you realize that you have been in the car the entire time, and not walking to the front door. you grab at your things, it really is just your phone and wallet that you had to carry, and exit the car with wobbly legs. you wave at minho and jisung, and observe them drive off. they choose not to stay and sneak a peek at mr. park because they're scared that the man with the sunglasses who greeted you would be mad.

now you're left on your own, you start walking to the front door, thinking about what you might say to a ceo. you have certainly not met anyone so important in your life, let alone be in charge of their child. what if something bad occurs? what if the child does not like your personality? what if you say the wrong thing in front of mr. park?

millions of negative thoughts are roaming through your head, of all the possibilities that may possibly come about. they take a halt once you arrive at the big black front door. it caves in the house, and a small step that makes it more secluded. there are bright lights on the top of it, shining bright on you. there are black cast iron handles that are attached to the door. you pull on them and knock lightly twice. you feel your palms start to sweat even more.

you see the door opening, and you're met face to face with a lady in an all black uniform. she has a big smile on her face as she greets you. it's quite comforting for your situation.

"you must be here for the babysitting position. come in sweetie, and don't forget to take your shoes off." you do as you are told and follow the lady into the spacious living room. the interior of the home is absolutely gorgeous. it looks like something you would see in a magazine. the floors are a beautifully stained hardwood. the walls are also made of the same material. the ceiling is black, and has built-in pot lights. the living room looks like it's double the size of your apartment.

you sit on the black leather couch, and the lady instructs you. "i'll go fetch mr. park, and let him know you're a bit early. may i offer you something before i leave?"

you smile back at her, and place your hands politely on your lap, with your legs crossed. "i'm all right, thank you very much." the lady nods her head and leaves the enormous room. you're too nervous to look at your phone, in case mr. park comes into the room, and might think you are impolite.

a minute or two passes by, and you hear the sounds of someone approaching. you correct your poster, to make sure you look as best as possible.

"we finally meet ms. L/n." you hear a man say. your recognize the deep voice, and look to the left where he came in. when you turn, your eyes meet with the most beautiful man you have ever seen. his dark hair gelled forward. he's wearing a balck suit with the buttons done up. he's wearing a while collared shirt underneath with a neatly knotted tie, and a silver clip attached to it. he has sharp god-like features, especially his dark eyes. he looks quite intimidating, you may add.

you quickly get up, and place your hands at your sides. "hello mr. park, it's nice to meet you." you say while smiling, trying to look and sound as polite as you can.

"likewise. i will get my daughter in a second, i would just like to talk to you first." he says, while smiling. aa second ago, he looked like the most intimidating person, but when he smiles he looks as if he wouldn't harm a fly. you're trying your best to concentrate on what he's telling, but it's difficult due to his beauty.

"of course sir."

"great. can i get you a drink?" he asks. this time you feel like you should accept the offer, not wanting to seem rude.

"yes thank you, may i have a water?" you answer.

says to follow him into the kitchen. so he can get you a water bottle. "you know, your uncle is a dear friend of mine. he talks about you whenever he gets the chance. so when he told me that you offered to babysit my daughter, i had hardly any doubts," he says. his voice is so relaxed. he's speaking with you as if he'd known you for years.

you on the other hand, are trying your best to not freak out. "oh really? well, i'm very happy you chose to consider me mr. park. i will do my best,"

he laughs, while opening the huge stainless steal fridge, and grabbing two water bottles. his laugh is probably the prettiest sound you have ever heard, it's deep and a bit contagious. however, you're a bit confused by his reaction. "your uncle told me you would say something like that."

just just laugh a little, and can feel your cheeks turning red at his comment. he hands you the cold water bottle, and beckons for you to sit. "so, i hear you're currently studying pharmaceuticals?" you simply nod, and answer with a polite 'yes'.

"that is so fascinating. you must be quite bright? i find that medicine is too hard, so many terms, i would be so confused," he says, while turning his head around acting like he's confused.

you both had talked for a few minutes, and you must admit, mr. park is quite funny and charming. he cracks little jokes every-so-often when he or you says something. despite your earlier feelings, you're starting to feel more comfortable the more you speak with him. you never would have expected mr. park to be so good-looking and down to earth at the same time. it's making you feel better about the job, and fall for him even more.

after saying your goodbyes to mr. park as he leaves the house to attend an important meeting, you're now left alone with his daughter jieun. you had your doubts about taking care of a child for three hours, however she is the sweetest girl to ever exist.

she's quite a smart girl. already so advanced in school than her other classmates. and when she speaks she smiles so brightly, you can't help but fall in love with her immediately.

the next three hours went by rather quickly, you and jieun spent most of the time paying games, and watching her favourite cartoons. she would point out to you all the names of the characters, even dancing along to the music played for intos of the shows.

then she brought out all of her little artworks, showing you the various pink and red scribbles. she said one of them was a cat, but it really was a circle and two dots. but who are you to say no to such a sweet girl like her? you just agree and praise her for her artistic skills. she smiled shyly at your words, her cute cheeks turning a shade of pink.

you hear the door opening, picking up your phone and checking the time, you realize it 8:05 p.m. you also see that minho and jisung had texted you, saying that they're outside of the gate waiting for you. they are also asking how is it going.

dumbass (minho):

[5:16 p.m.] how's it going? is mr. ceo nice? do i have to beat him up yet?

dumbass's boyfriend (jisung):

[5:18 p.m.] is he a dilf? pls we need details y/n (and is credit card info-)

dumbass (minho):

[7:59 p.m.] since you're not answering, we're by the gate with the guy who has a stick up his ass. let me know when you're out

you:

[8:00 p.m.] i'll be at the gate in a few minutes. i have so much to tell you omfg

you see mr. park entering the house, as you finished putting away jieun's pencil crayons and colouring books.

"daddy! you're home!!" you hear jieun say, while running up to mr. park. he takes her in his arms, and lifts her up easily to his eye level. he gives her a kiss on her forehead, "daddy missed you sweetie. did you miss daddy?" he asks, in the sweetest voice. the expression on his face is filled with adoration for his daughter. the way he holds on to her, making sure she's secure, and could not fall. you can't help but smile at the two., while standing just beside them.

"yes i did!" jieun says while grabbing onto her dad's jacket that is now unbuttoned.

"aww. and how did you like spending time with y/n?" he asked.

jieun smiled brightly and said, "i like her a lot, she said my cat was pretty! and..." she whispered into her dad's ear, "she's very pretty."

you were able to hear her last comment as you were standing next to them. you smiled and turned a little red in the face at the cute little girl's compliment. mr. park nods his head in agreement saying a little 'yes', while looking at you with a warm smile. you had to metally remind yourself that you cannot scream right then and there with what mr. park had just done.

"why don't you say goodbye to ms. L/n, and go to your room, i'll be up there in a few minutes okay jieun?" mr. park says. the little girl waves at you and says an adorable 'bye bye' and goes upstairs to her room.

now you are left alone with mr. park again. this time you start speaking. "i should probably get going now," you say, looking at any place that is not mr. park's gorgeous face, and eyes.

"don't leave yet," he says. you're a bit intrigued now, wondering at what he will say next. "i still have to pay you for taking care of jieun." you laugh at the realization that he hadn't paid you yet. of course he would say that, why were you thinking of something else. he reaches for his wallet in his pants pocket, and pulls out the money to give to you.

"i think this should be enough, let me know if you need more," he hands you the money, you take a look at it, and it's 70$. this is already way too much, and he asked if you wanted more?

"this already more than enough mr. park, thank you." you say while putting the money in your pocket, and putting your shoes on. as you head for the door, and say your final goodbyes to the man behind you, he says something.

"you have a ride back home yes?" he asks. you explain that your friend dropped you off and picked you up for today. "oh i see, it's getting quite dark out, let me walk to the front gate at least."

"oh no, mr. park, i'm okay. i would not want to waste your time," you answer waving your hands in front of you.

"please, i insist." he gives you a pleading look that you just can't resist. plus if a man this good-looking and rich would want to walk you, who are you to say no?

you and mr. park engage in a conversation about jieun. you tell him that you adore his daughter, and cannot believe how inteligente she is at such a young age. he just answers with a laugh, and continues about how he doesn't understand how smart she is as well. he goes on a little more about his daughter. you don't really pay much attention though. you're too focused at how young he looks, his skin is the definition of perfection. you wonder how much he looks after it.

as the silence between you both starts to become a bit awkward, he asks you a question.

"is your friend always going to drive you here?"

"he usually has work, so not really. i know the bus stop is only a five minute walk from here, so i can just get here by that. i will have to make sure the guard at the front of the gate will let me in," you say half jokingly.

"oh yeah, i know john can be quite intimidating sometimes. i'll tell him that he will be seeing you quite often from now on."

you get excited at what mr. park had just said. does that mean you got the job? "seeing me quite often?" you ask, a little unsure.

"yes, you have the job ms. L/n" mr. park says.

a/n: omg guys part two is done!! I never expected so many people to be added to the tagslist for this omg <33 i’m in love with writing this story right now!!

and just to give a bit more clarification, this will be very similar to a slow burn, and the plot will evolve more. there will be smut, but that will be in the later chapters. i am also thinking of adding on different things to this story as well, (it will be a ff of seonghwa’s pov of the story) but i’m not so sure if i should do it or not.

for anyone who would like to be included in my tagslist please leave a comment, or message me!! it is never too late to add you. also please tell me what you think of the story (if you’d like to!). i see every comment, and notification <3

tagslist: @miamyre @luabahngg @flowersiinherhaiir @vvsmydiamonds127 @prodsh00ky @jhmylove @sunwoosberrie @jenotation @m4rsluv @seonghwasstar @zwiehe @kodzukein @aurumness

#seonghwa smut #ateez smut #ateez imagines #ateez series #seonghwa hard hours #seonghwa imagines #seonghwa fluff #seonghwa scenarios #seonghwa fanfic #san smut #mingi smut #ateez hoongjong #ateez x reader #seonghwa x you #seonghwa x reader

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earthcookies · 4 months

Text

what is up with this stupid ass trend where ppl shit on abstract and modern art and its like some bizarre game of Who Can Say The Worst Opinions Ever

ppl can feel however they want abt art they dont Have to like art in those categories but then they act like it shouldnt exist at all and its like ok i will rip your dumbass takes in half if thats how its gonna be

#sorry for the kinda aggro post but like i care so deeply abt art and especially strange and unconventional art #again the implication that this type of art shouldnt exist is like so horrible on so many levels

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twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat · 4 months

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ari i’m curious do u have kenny hcs

RIKO U HAVE NO IDEA THE MONSTER UVE UNLEASHED.....

i do have some kenny hcs <333 take a seat here's a snack we’re gonna be here for a while 🧁🧃 (THANK YOU FOR INDULGING ME <3 this man genuinely makes me feel ill im sooo delusional abt him)

okok so first of all; general hcs !!

he likes art!! loves art!! this one is canon to me i just think he is so interested in any and all of humanity’s creative outlets and ofc art is the most prominent one. he loves all different forms of art — from sculptures to paintings to writing to video games (HEAVY on the latter btw i think he's so entranced by new technology) and so on.

and on that note!! i think he paints and writes himself :3 hes been alive for so long, learned so many languages, there's no way he didn't have time to pick up a paint brush. i think he paints to release stress!! and his styles vary but there's something mildly macabre abt all of his pieces. tends to gravitate towards expressionism above all else, especially the abstract kind.

i also feel like he sincerely enjoys ”bad” art like low budget movies and modern romance fiction and goofy video games…… he just thinks they're fun. def gets a good laugh out of them (this man canonically had a whole comedy phase he just wants to have fun!!)

and and and!! this is self indulgent as hell but i also think he cooks. there's just so much to learn when it comes to different cultures and their cuisine and i think they all interest him. but i hesitate to say that he's a good cook bc i feel like he’d make really weird fucked up food combinations just for the hell of it…. he's a freak. 100% the type to mix orange juice w black coffee just to see how it tastes.

i also hc that he has a soft spot for children, seeing as he literally carried and birthed one of his own LMAO... i just think he admires the innocence of childhood !! that childish and simple hope that adults tend to lose. he's very good w them too!! gentle and patient. and in geto’s body he has the softest nicest voice so i feel like kids gravitate towards him (i'm just thinking abt that One scene where he blows bubbles at a playground and all the kids chase them… they love him i just know he's a regular at that park)

OH AND……. idk if i’d call this a hc exactly but i just wanna see kenny in more feminine clothing. he literally has All the genders i don't think for a second that he cares abt gender norms. one moment he's in that tacky middle aged divorced father core hawaiian tshirt (he's so Me), the next he's wearing a purple floral dress or a puffy turtleneck <33 i just think he could pull anything off.

NOW FOR THE GOOD STUFF……. relationship hcs <33333 hes a whole red flag but hes also my silly pookie bear just trust me on this

FIRST OF ALL he's huge on quality time. if he's in a relationship w u then that means he sincerely enjoys ur company and therefore has a tendency to just bring u with him wherever he goes. otherwise he gets bored and starts whining abt it (silly silly man) hes a lonely guy ok </3 i feel like he gets very sudden urges to explore new places / do new things and he’ll make sure you’re right there w him !! you’ll wake up in his arms only to find you're in a snowy forest or some shit and he just WILL not tell u where he's taken u bc its ”a surprise ^_^” LMAOO

he also takes on a teaching role in the relationship and i think that's where hes happiest !! gets a kick out of it but it's also kind of special to him. especially if you haven't seen much of the world, or if you're just a naturally curious person — preferably both. he just enjoys teaching you new things, leading you towards new sights, drinking in your expressions and reactions. it's precious to him. something to cherish.

ON THAT NOTE i think he has this unquenchable curiosity that gets temporarily sated when he tries to like . Dissect you. see inside your mind. it's like hes solving a puzzle that never runs out of pieces. hear me out riko but i see him as somewhat similar to makima, he's detached and has trouble connecting w people and handles you almost like a math equation….. but since he unlike makima is a human being, i think he still has the capacity to grow to care for you and treat you like an equal (or something close to an equal). he genuinely does love you, but he's rusty. kenjaku just wants to know all there is to know about you — every single thing. he’d dig into your brain if he could, but he’ll settle on just brewing you tea, listening to you speak about your fears, hoping it’ll give him the same insight.

he's a little possessive . kind of a Lot. idk i just think he feels a pang of jealousy when he sees u laugh and have fun w someone else (he's like a preschooler getting pouty bc his bestie is playing w someone else LOL) and that makes him Uncomfortable so he just waltzes in and steals u away w a smooth smile and a hand on ur waist. pretends like it doesn't bother him in the slightest but if u tease him too much he drops the smile and gives u a Look (it's scary as hell so u immediately shut up LMAOO) and god forbid someone else is like… teaching u something… a subject they're knowledgeable abt while u sit there listening happily to their rambling……..... ohhh he gets so jealous it's funny. researches that particular subject in frightening detail JUST so he can correct your little friend and teach u abt it himself <33 weirdo. freak.

also (this is extremely important to understanding kenny's character) he's both mother coded and father coded but in the worst possible ways.

he's mother coded in the sense that he's a smidge controlling, good at coaxing you into doing things outside your comfort zone, an expert at making you feel guilty by acting especially sweet and gentle, has the ability to make you cry w one disappointed look etc etc

and he's father coded in the sense that he's easily offended but pretends not to be, wants to see you succeed so bad that it's almost more for him than you, forces you to have really deep onesided philosophical talks at 2am when you just want to sleep, sucks at voicing his love for you out loud so he just buys a bag of your favorite fruit, cuts them into slices and calls it a day. etc etc. he's awful actually. i need him

but !!! as for more soft hcs i think he's honestly an affectionate guy deep down… like deep deep down but it's there. he just likes having u close. preferably touching him. not constantly bc that’ll annoy him but he wants you to stay near so he can pull u into his lap whenever. loves reading to u while u rest ur head on his thigh, playing w ur hair and lulling u softly to sleep <3333 (it's the geto kinnie in him) AND idk why this came into my mind but i think he likes nose kisses. just bc ur face scrunches up and he thinks it's cute. he can be sweet !! probably.

OHHH AND he loves playing board games w u <33 everything from chess to monopoly. he thinks it's fun + a good bonding activity but it's only fun in the beginning. he's condescending if u lose and petty if u win but he’ll still ask u to stay up w him all night just so u can finish the game (he's insufferable actually) if u decline he’ll huff and play by himself while shooting u petty glares until u feel bad and join him. then he's back to being all suave and calm and mature ohhhh i hate him

he wants to be the mature stoic indulgent person in the relationship sooooo fucking bad but he’s plagued by silly impulses day and night. he’s just good at hiding it. but deep down he is and always will be a silly nerd <33

and finally; i think that in a no curses au he's significantly less of a freak but still weird and obsessive and a lil mean. bullies u just a tinyyy bit and acts condescendingly sweet but he cares for u a whole bunch. probably struggles w showing it in a way that isn't too overbearing or mildly alarming… maybe through writing. poems and paintings of u… sculptures…. just wants to portray the beauty he sees in u (can u tell artist!kenny makes me go a little crazy)

overall hes a weirdo hes a freak (def wants u to kiss his brain just to see how it feels) and he may or may not be a bundle of red flags but i love him dearly <333 hes a silly goose. i want to study him in a lab

#ive been thinking abt this for a while riko ty for indulging me <333 PLSSS IF U HAVE ANY AKI HCS GIVE THEM TO ME 🙏🙏🙏#these hcs make it glaringly obvious how down bad i am for him i think but just pretend that i like him in a normal way ok #kenny is just so sillyyyy he was crafted specifically to fix my parental issues (he would make them worse)#kenjaku x reader #<- tagging this in case some starving kenny stan stumbles upon it. enjoy ur food beloved <33 #i have a sudden urge to write an artist!kenny x reader fic hmmm wonder what thats all abt (riko u just made the brainrot worse ily <333)#ask tag ✩

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emptycalories-splitlip · 2 months

Text

Cleaning Service

724 Juniper Lane. That was the address he was texted. The "unknown" number sent the address, the number '3' and the code word. In this case, it was nitro. This meant the client needed immediate disposal of three bodies at the address provided and funds would be sent trough the usual route.

So there he sat, peering up at the house with all its lights on so they illuminated the winding stone path. He climbed out of the car, hefted his duffel bag over his shoulder, and walked to the door. Another text pinged his cell. "765548". He entered it on the pin pad attached to the door handle and with a cheery tune, it unlocked.

Stepping into the foyer, the man glanced around, taking on his surroundings. Fancy abstract art on the walls, marble counter tops, and intensely modern appliances galore. What a vulgar display of wealth, he thought. He shrugged and rounded the corner into the den and was met with the full sight of what he was working with.

There was blood pooling on the peach colored tile, spreading out from the bodies that lay at odd angles between the couches. One, a tall lanky man in his mid 40s, laid with his head thrown back over a set of steps that led down to a nook fireplace. The cleaner knelt, checking for a pulse in the exposed throat, checking the torso for where the blood may have been coming from. Finding no pulse and a puncture under the left arm, he moved to the next body.

This one was also male, a handsome young man with a massive gash across his throat and a few smaller ones on his face. No signs of life could be found there, either, so he moved the the third. This body was halfway off the couch, arms and upper torso on the seat cushion and the lower half curled beneath as if posing. The cleaner grimaced, kneeling beside the victim. He tipped the head back and was unsurprised to see that this victim was a woman.

A dark bruise had bloomed on her jaw and blood stained under her nostrils, as well as the couch under her breasts. The man dug two fingers into her carotid, doing the same check for her as he did for the other two unfortunate fucks in the room. He halted, holding his breath as he felt a pulse, weak and slow, but present. Shit. That complicated matters.

Quickly, he manoeuvred the woman off of the couch and into the floor and felt for the pulse again. Confirming that this vic was indeed still alive, he spat out a curse and pulled his cell from his pocket. He dialed quickly and set the call to speaker phone before setting it on the floor by his knee. He tore the woman's blouse open, found the wound on her right side and pressed his hands over it.

"The job done?" Came the heavily accented voice on the other end of the line.

"No, ran into a hitch. One vic, heart still goin', need to know how to proceed."

"Confirmed, it's one of the bodies?"

"Positive. Scene was set up right. All together."

"Sure, sure. I'll contact the client. Gimme a tick."

The cleaner continued applying pressure to the laceration on the woman's side, watching her chest struggle to rise with her breathing. Half a minute later and the voice in the phone returned

"Describe the living vic."

"Woman, short hair, tattoo on left collar bone, says 'the key'."

"Client says cross fire, didn't mean to take that one. Can save her or take her out with others. Your call." The line clicked off, leaving the cleaner some once more.

Sonuvabitch.

He hated having to choose. He knew it was easier to let her die. She was almost there as it was, the pulse in her throat barely present when he checked again. But something in him hated to let her go, knowing he could have done something. He also couldn't deny that she was pretty, even ashen as she was, and he hated to let that go to waste, too.

So he left her side for a moment, grabbing his bag and dropping it by her side. He unzipped it, pulling out a length of bandage and gauze pads. He quickly pressed the pads over the wound and wrapped the bandage around her waist to try and hold the bleeding at bay. He needed to finish the job first before focusing on her.

He stood and started to dispose of the mess around the other two victims. He cleaned the blood, thoroughly and completely got rid of the bodies (thank goodness for concrete, feral pigs, and secluded living spaces), and wiped the security feeds. He returned to the living room and panic shot through him.

#whump #eventual resus #clearing out my drafts #couldbe good for RP

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max1461 · 11 months

Text

I don't want to keep discoursing on evilsoup's post, so I'll make a new home for this sub-discussion here. To reproduce the relevant bits:

@max1461 (me) said:

I find that a lot of anti-anti-civ discourse revives (or perhaps merely continues, since they never really died) the cheapest fallacies of Whig history. There's not merely an acknowledgement of the (true, I believe) fact that industry and modern medicine make the lives of their beneficiaries much better, there is an implicit de facto and sometimes almost giddy dismissal of the value of all that came before. You get the feeling reading a lot of anti-anti-civ commentary that people are itching to condemn anything and everything of the past, and more troublingly any way of life that they personally view as obsolete, just for the sake of it. Just for the discourse thrills. It's reductive and it's unpleasant to engage with.

@sabakos said:

Honestly I have to say that indoor plumbing and modern medicine is good enough that I'd gladly torch even more of what came before and gladly spit in the face of anyone who tried to complain about it. Hypothetically, if the Ancient Greek language had had to be lost for modern plumbing to appear I'd flush the last manuscript of Plato down the toilet and lose no sleep over it. Fortunately, it didn't, but if it did it wouldn't matter.

You can't name one thing that even comes close to billions of people not dying of cholera or starving to death. So it's not surprising that people are eager to shit all over anyone who tries.

@max1461 said:

This is fine but it's totally orthogonal to my point. You acknowledge that Ancient Greek did not in fact have to be lost in order to get modern plumbing, but then gloss over this as if it's a minor aside. No! My point is that internet Whig history enthusiasts sometimes seem to be out to shit on anything and everything that strikes them as obsolete even when it does not need to be lost for the benefits of modern life to be enjoyed, for reasons that seem to me more aesthetic than anything else. Surely not everyone does this, but it's a common enough phenomenon to get on my nerves.

@sabakos said:

It's clearly something that bothers you, so maybe you could give some examples? Because this is all very abstract and I have no idea what you're talking about - based on what you've said here I don't think I've encountered this sort of guy despite being ideologically very similar to how you describe them!

---

There are actually people who think Ancient Greek (read: Inuktitut, Gan Chinese, Oromo) has to die for us all to get indoor plumbing! This is not actually an uncommon shape of opinion for people to hold, in the world at large. There are of course two versions of this, one more harmful than the other but both destructive: "we have to stop wearing kimono and start wearing suits or the Great Powers will never respect us", and "you have to stop holding potlatches in order to become civilized like us".

The point is not that these claims suppose different values than you or I hold, the point is that they are wrong, factually wrong. Unexamined Whig history of the sort which, as I said, sneers at anything that gives off vague whiffs of being "traditional" is making a set of factual errors. It's also often used cynically (as in the second example above) to advance political ends, but that's not really what I'm talking about here. What I'm talking about are people who seem to have a reflexive distaste for anything that appears to them overly sympathetic to the old, any cause with preservationist or restorationist undertones, even when it in no way conflicts with people enjoying the benefits of modern technology. This kind of thinking does active harm in the world. Random tumblr users are of course not likely doing any harm by engaging in it, given that tumblr discourse obviously has no political sway. But it's still frustrating to see a stance that is both incorrect and harmful so casually taken up over (what I perceive to be) petty discourse bouts.

Sometimes, old things are fine, and wanting to keep doing them is fine. When people oppose this, especially on reflexive, aesthetic grounds, I think it is bad.

To be clear, I've never seen anyone in this conversation (you or triv) do any of what I've described here. But I do see it a lot and it kind of drives me up the wall.

#society

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